Alex Dahlen

Profile

Infrastructure and security lead at a multi-site manufacturer, responsible for enterprise security program ownership, disaster recovery, and IT governance. Led Zero Trust initiatives, acquisition integrations, and DR modernization reducing recovery windows from hours to minutes.

Experience

Wenger Corporation

Owatonna, MN

IT Infrastructure and Security Lead

Sep 2023 - Present

  • Serve as Incident Response Commander and co-lead of the annual executive tabletop exercise program, directing cross-functional response teams and briefing C-suite on risk, impact, and remediation strategy.
  • Own the enterprise security program end-to-end — tooling selection, policy governance, incident response planning, and security awareness training deployed company-wide.
  • Improved organizational security posture by 7.5% as measured by annual S2Score validation, from 640 to 688, outperforming the manufacturing industry average of 600.
  • Chair monthly security status briefings with IT leadership and executive stakeholders, translating technical security metrics into business risk language.
  • Architect and enforce IT governance standards including a formal IT Steering Committee project intake, estimation, and prioritization framework supporting 40+ active projects across six business units.
  • Lead disaster recovery modernization achieving near-real-time RPO of five minutes and RTO under thirty minutes across primary and secondary data centers — a step-change from legacy recovery windows of four to twenty-four hours.
  • Direct multi-site infrastructure integration for acquired subsidiaries — deploying firewalls, switching, wireless, domain migration, endpoint refresh, and ISP transitions across each new location.
  • Manage enterprise security renewals and vendor relationships across endpoint protection, vulnerability management, and managed detection and response services, ensuring continuous coverage.
  • Define Zero Trust architecture strategy, network segmentation standards, 802.1X network access control policies, and vulnerability management programs aligned to manufacturing and operational continuity requirements.
  • Architect and enforce least-privilege access controls across managed endpoints using Intune Endpoint Privilege Management, eliminating standing local admin rights without impacting operational workflows.
  • IT Strategy
  • Incident Response
  • Zero Trust
  • Disaster Recovery
  • Governance
  • Vendor Management
  • FortiGate
  • Tenable
  • Entra ID
  • MDR
  • 802.1X/NAC
  • Intune EPM

Systems Administrator

May 2022 - Sep 2023

  • Administered enterprise Windows and Citrix infrastructure supporting 250+ users across multiple facilities, including approximately 100 virtual machines across production, pilot, development, and administration environments totaling roughly 50TB of managed storage.
  • Led the HighJump Warehouse Management System upgrade, coordinating across IT, operations, and the vendor to minimize downtime impact on warehouse and distribution workflows.
  • Drove foundational network segmentation and Zero Trust initiatives that established the security baseline for future program expansion.
  • Designed and implemented PowerShell automation reducing manual operational overhead and improving system reliability.
  • Executed monthly patching and vulnerability remediation cycles across production systems, endpoints, and servers.
  • PowerShell
  • Citrix
  • Windows Server
  • Zero Trust
  • Network Segmentation
  • Patch Management
  • Automation
  • VMware
  • HighJump WMS

Freeborn County Minnesota

Albert Lea, MN

Systems Administrator

Jul 2020 - May 2022

  • Managed Windows server infrastructure for law enforcement and emergency response systems in a regulated public-sector environment requiring high availability and strict security controls.
  • Administered sole ownership of the WatchGuard body camera and digital evidence management system across police, sheriff, and prosecution offices — maintaining confidentiality, integrity, and availability of approximately 50TB of evidentiary data spanning multiple agencies.
  • Ensured chain of custody compliance and access controls across a multi-agency evidence ecosystem with direct legal and prosecutorial dependencies.
  • Administered Active Directory, SQL Server, IIS, SSL certificates, and file services supporting mission-critical county operations.
  • Built and deployed standardized workstation images using SCCM, accelerating onboarding and reducing configuration drift.
  • Active Directory
  • Windows Server
  • SQL Server
  • SCCM
  • SSL/PKI
  • High Availability
  • WatchGuard
  • Digital Evidence Management
  • Data Governance
  • Chain of Custody

Education

MBA in Information Technology Management

Southern New Hampshire University

May 2024 - Aug 2025

BS in Computer Information Systems

Neumont College of Computer Science

Sep 2016 - Aug 2019

Volunteering

First Responder

Hartland Fire Department — Hartland, MN

  • Certified Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) providing pre-hospital emergency care for a rural community of ~400 residents across Hartland and surrounding areas
  • Responds to medical emergencies, vehicle accidents, and fire incidents as part of a volunteer department serving a rural community with limited emergency service coverage
  • Applies ICS/NIMS incident command principles in live emergency response, directly complementing enterprise Incident Response Commander responsibilities at Wenger Corporation
photo of me
  • +1 507 402 5415
  • [email protected]
  • adahlen.ninja
  • linkedin.com/in/dahlenalex
  • github.com/Massiv3Troll
  • Owatonna, MN

Skills

    • Executive & Leadership
    • IT Strategy & Roadmapping
    • Cybersecurity Governance & Program Ownership
    • Incident Response Leadership (ICS/NIMS)
    • IT Steering Committee Facilitation
    • Vendor & Third-Party Risk Management
    • Risk Management & Compliance
    • Policy & Standards Development
    • AI Governance & Acceptable Use
      Security & Risk
    • Zero Trust Architecture
    • 802.1X Network Access Control (NAC)
    • Vulnerability Management & Pen Test Coordination
    • Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR/MDR)
    • Identity & Access Management (Entra ID, PAM, MFA)
    • Endpoint Privilege Management (Intune EPM)
    • Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
    • SIEM & Security Monitoring
    • OT/IT Network Segmentation
      Infrastructure & Platforms
    • Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
    • Hybrid Cloud & Virtualization (VMware, Proxmox)
    • Microsoft 365 & Intune
    • Citrix (CVAD/MCS)
    • Firewalls & SD-WAN (FortiGate)
    • Multi-Site Network Integration
      Automation & Development
    • PowerShell & Bash Scripting
    • Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
    • Python
    • REST API Integration
    • Git & Version Control